Racism, Elections and the Economic Down-Turn

ISSN 1463 9696 Summer 2009 • Bulletin No 68 EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN Racism, elections and the economic down-turn By Liz Fekete Contents Editorial 2 Country summaries 3 Racist murders 25 I Germany: Why did Marwa al-Sherbini die? I Malta: The death of Suleiman Ismail Abubaker Comment: Fear and loathing in Belfast by Phil Scraton 29 This bulletin is part of a European Race Audit supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed here are therefore those of the contributors. Please acknowledge IRR’s European Race Audit Project in any use of this work. An ‘Alternative Voices on Integration’ project is also being carried out by the IRR and funded by the Network of European Foundations (European Programme on Integration and Migration). For further information contact Liz Fekete at the Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS. Email: [email protected] © Institute of Race Relations 2009 Editorial June saw elections in Europe for 736 MEPs in twenty-seven countries. But while all eyes were focused on the extreme-Right and anti-immigration parties, the real threat posed by their gains has not been given the attention it deserves. At a time of global recession and economic down-turn, processes through which foreigners and vulnerable minorities are scapegoated and stigmatised for society’s ills have been strengthened. Within the summaries and case- studies presented in this report is alarming evidence that anti-foreigner sentiment, homopho- bia and intolerance are being incorporated into the agendas of mainstream political parties. While there were notable successes for the extreme-Right, the picture was not uniform. The share of the vote for the Vlaams Belang in Belgium and the Front National in France, for instance, declined substantially. But the Islamophobic Freedom Party in the Netherlands under the leadership of Geert Wilders, made dramatic gains, coming in second in the European parliament elections with 15 per cent of the vote. Equally alarming was the breakthrough for the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) and for the True Finns; the doubling of the Danish People’s Party’s share of the vote; and lesser, though significant, gains for the Austrian Freedom Party, the Slovak National Party, Greater Romania Party, the Popular Orthodox Rally in Greece and the British National Party in the UK. But whatever the extreme-Right’s additions and subtractions, whichever country it takes root in, it spreads a toxic poison through a rhetoric which blames the global recession on famil- iar enemies – Muslims, Roma, Gays, Jews – thereby encouraging the growth of fascism. There has been a neo-nazi resurgence in the Netherlands, Spain, Austria and Germany. The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) now has 176 seats on regional and city councils, and is even gaining ground in western Germany. And where the neo-nazis flourish, racial violence fol- lows. In this report, are details of four racist murders – in Germany, Malta and Hungary - and since going to press a 45-year-old Roma woman has been shot dead and her daughter seri- ously injured in Kisléta, eastern Hungary in an incident which the police are treating as racial- ly motivated. In addition to this, Romanian Roma who migrated to Belfast have been forced out of northern Ireland, and there has been a growth in arson attacks and other violence against refugee reception centres in Finland and Sweden. What is so immediately apparent from all these examples is the pressing need for unity between all vulnerable groups in society, defined by the extreme-Right as the ‘enemy within’. For what the growth of intolerance and neo-nazi violence should do is clarify the nature of the real enemy we face. Disunity between groups representing the Roma, Jews, Muslims, refugees is no longer an option. And in this respect, the actions of Stephen Kramer, Secretary General of the German Jewish Council, were exemplary. Amidst a deafening official silence against the horrendous murder of Marwa al-Sherbini in a German courtroom, he was the first non-Muslim to describe the attack as motivated by Islamophobia, something that the German government had, initially, resolutely failed to do. Liz Fekete 2 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Country summaries This summary of the background to the June European parliamentary elections, as well as other recent state, regional and local elections, covers the period from April 2009 to the end of July 2009. While it is drawn from a wide variety of sources, a particular debt is owed to Searchlight, and its European editor, Graeme Atkinson. AUSTRIA he pointed out, started with verbal attacks on Jews. There were also fears in the gay community over the Support for extreme-right Freedom Party grows FPÖ’s campaign. The Vienna branch of the FPÖ called for Two extreme-right parties, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) and a law forbidding dissemination of ‘exhortative informa- the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), contested tion about homosexuality among minors’ in an effort to the June European parliamentary elections, with the FPÖ ‘protect our children from sexual exploitation’ and scoring 12.7 per cent of the vote, translating into two warned against ‘self-glorifying depictions of homosexu- seats (up one, and a massive increase on the 6.3 per ality in children’s books’. A new campaign against homo- cent it won in 2004). This was the first European ven- phobia launched by the Christian gay support group ture for the BZÖ, which was only formed in 2005. Its 4.6 Courage revealed that gays and lesbians have a suicide per cent share of the vote was not sufficient to secure rate seven times higher than the Austrian average it any European representation. The FPÖ, which utilised (young people aged 15 to 17 were particularly vulnera- the slogan ‘The West in Christian hands’ during is cam- ble) and the Greens believe that the FPÖ is contributing paign, was condemned for exploiting Christian symbols, to the high suicide rate by fomenting anxiety and as well as singling out Turkey and Israel for attack. hatred. The mainstream parties and particularly the conserv- ative People’s Party (ÖVP), which subsequently emerged President condemns FPÖ campaign advert as anti- as the biggest winners in the European parliamentary Semitic elections, struggling to adopt strategies on how best to On 18 May, the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann deal with growing support for the extreme right, were intervened after the FPÖ was accused of anti-Semitism accused of capitulating to its agenda. As Sonya Ferker, for placing an ad in the tabloid Kronen Zeitung that from the ZARA anti-racism organisation, concluded stated ‘FPÖ veto for Turkey and Israel in the EU’. ‘There is a serious problem with political debate on Chancellor Faymann told the Daily Standard online edi- immigration. It is entrenching polarisation and produc- tion that as Israel [unlike Turkey] is not an EU accession ing an “us and them” view on immigration.’ candidate, the ‘only reason to mention Israel here is to stir up anti-Semitic prejudices’. That is shameful. We Freedom Party campaign highlights Christian values have no time for such taunting, I strongly condemn it.’ The FPÖ which put forward fifteen candidates, headed by Chancellor Faymann also described Strache as a ‘hate MEP Andreas Mölzer, its previous sole representative at monger, a disgrace’. the European parliament, was accused of manipulating Christian symbols and openly pandering to anti- FPÖ president of Austrian parliament attacks Jewish Semitism and Islamophobia. The FPÖ was also roundly organisation criticised by other political parties for adopting the slo- Members of the FPÖ, particularly MP Martin Graf, who is gan ‘The West in Christian Hands’. (In previous elections, currently president of the Austrian parliament, have the party used the slogan ‘Homeland instead of Islam’.) increasingly been at loggerheads with leaders of There was more criticism, this time directed against FPÖ Austria’s official Jewish body, the Jewish Community in leader, Heinz-Christian Strache (who is preparing for Austria (IKG), particularly its leader Ariel Muzicant who confirmation into the Roman Catholic church) when he had compared the FPÖ’s general secretary Herbert Kickl waved a Crucifix at his supporters during a rally against to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The a Muslim centre. The FPÖ campaigned on the economic FPÖ’s Neue Freie Zeitung (online edition) subsequently downturn, the EU’s Lisbon treaty and opposition to the quoted Graf describing Muzicant as the ‘godfather of accession of Turkey into the EU. The FPÖ’s state-funded anti-fascist left-wing terrorism’, accusing him of ‘creat- youth organisation, the Freedom Youth Ring, issued ing a climate of brutality’ by having links to the ‘violent stickers showing a cigarette packet bearing the warning, mob on the street’. The Green party cited the comments ‘Mixed sort – immigration can cause death’. One FPÖ in parliament, stating that Graf had ‘blatantly shamed’ comic-strip called ‘HC Man’ portrayed Strache as a mus- the dignity of parliament and the Republic of Austria. As cular hero fighting against evil aliens from another plan- the dispute escalated, there were calls for Graf to stand et. Socialist Party of Austria politician Hannes Swoboda down from his official post as third president of the said that the comic claimed evil invaders pollute the Austrian parliament. (Graf was elected as the parlia- blood and ruin the society, adding that ‘The Nazis did ment’s third president in October 2008 after the FPÖ the same in Der Stürmer newspaper’. The President of the came third in the general election.) But the ÖVP refused Islamic Community in Austria, Anas Schafkeh, said to support any initiative to change the constitution so statements such as ‘Occident in the hands of Christians’ that a parliamentary president could be deprived of took him back to the horrors of the Holocaust, which, power.

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